December 2017 Leisure Boating^27
In the beginning you need to understand
how the system works and experience the
varying attitude effects on your boat. On
the first trip with the Active Trim installed
and engines trimmed in for take-off, I
immediately realised the benefits of the
system when my boat reached 4000 rpm
and popped out of the water onto the
plane without touching a thing. The best
attitude for your boat when starting off
is with the engines trimmed right in, this
gives you maximum thrust for take-off.
Thereafter one trims the boat’s bow up
until the perfect ride is achieved for the
current water conditions. In trimming a
boat one is looking for a combination of
comfort, safety and efficiency.
The Active Trim display has five orange
lights that needs to be thought of as
individual bow attitudes ... not numbers.
So, the bottom number 1, is the bow
down position and the top number 5 is
the high bow position. I find that using
the middle setting, number 3, is a good
happy medium to start out the day with.
All you need do then is press 2 or 4 once
you’re on the plane to fine tune your boat.
With experience I’ve found that I only use
position 1 when I’m travelling head-on
into big swell to give me a bow-down
position to cut into the sea, and 5 when I’m
running with a big swell and need to have
the bow right up. The beauty of running a
big swell with the Mercury system is that
as soon as the boat starts to labour, the
Active Trim makes the micro adjustments
to keep the boat performing to its
maximum. This clever feature responds
by automatically trimming your engines in
when needed and back out when it feels
you’re running perfectly again. Unless
you watch the engines you will not realise
how much they are being trimmed in this
kind of situation. In essence what the
system is doing is tucking your engines in
the minute you begin to lose power in a
trough to give you the thrust to power out,
and then trimming out again once you are
riding high. This, in my book, is saving a
fair amount of fuel in that you no longer
press on the throttles to power out.
Age and experience are not always
an advantage and with my four plus
decades of experience at the helm, I
found it extremely difficult to relinquish
control to the Active Trim system, muchlike letting your child drive you around
for the first time. But as soon as you get
used to the feel of what the system does
and how it affects your boat, it becomes
clear that the benefits are real and you
begin to let it take increasing control.
Peace of mind came from knowing that at
any stage I could touch the trim buttons
and regain full control. However, it must
be remembered that this control is brief
and the system will return to the attitude
you selected after a few seconds, to take
permanent control you simply press the
off button.
Now that I have become familiar with
the Active Trim system, I allow the system
to do most of the work throughout the
day. For general running when conditions
are moderate, the Active Trim system will
take a huge load off your shoulders by
constantly trimming your boat perfectly,
and this will also save you fuel in the long
run. When I encounter storm conditions,
as we often do off Cape Point, I switch
the Active Trim off and take full control
of the boat, but maybe that’s just a head
adjustment on my part. When I ride a
storm, I constantly work the trims, throttle